Until You Get Back On Your Feet
by AdolescentPrimordial
Summary: After a brutal breakup between Ember and Skulker, Ember's realm in the GZ is destroyed. Danny offers her a place to stay until she can get back on her feet. How can Danny harbor a ghost without his family finding out about her, or worse, him? And will Danny and Ember become friends, or more? Before Phantom Planet
1. Chapter 1

**Ember's Realm, Ghost Zone**

"You bastard!" screamed Ember, enraged at her soon to be ex-boyfriend, Skulker. A fight had erupted in the punk princess's realm after the hunter had made another one of his women-degrading comments, and this time he crossed the line.

 _20 minutes before_

 _The sounds of guitar strings plucking could be heard throughout the small, apartment-like realm as Ember tuned her mystic guitar. The sound of knocking was just barely heard over that, and the blue-haired ghost went to check her realm door, expecting Kitty and Johnny, and came face to metal chest plate with her boyfriend._

 _"Finally you answer. I've been waiting out here for ten minutes! Well, aren't you gonna let me in?" Skulker pushed past Ember into the realm and sat on her couch. Ember remained at the door, peeved at the punkish boldness her boyfriend showed. She closed the door, just barely avoiding slamming it, and headed in to see Skulker lazing on her couch._

 _"Hey babe, find the remote. And while you're at it, I'm starved. A sandwich would be satisfactory after all the hunting I did today," the ghost man demanded._

 _"Find the remote your own damn self. Or are you not as good of a hunter as you thought out were? I guess not, because I don't see any 'prey'," she grumpily replied._

 _"I'll have you know I was hunting the whelp. He barely escaped my traps. I will have his pelt, some day!"_

 _"Oh, so you got your ass kicked by the dipstick again? No surprise there. I don't see why you don't give up," she quickly crushed his dreams._

 _"How dare you?! I am Skulker, greatest hunter of the Ghost Zone! I don't give up! I will have the whelp's pelt, and I'll have you skin it."_

 _"Oh hell no! I am not helping you in your sick hobby, or skinning that scrawny Phantom."_

 _"But you will. I'll make you. Besides, it is a woman's job to prepare the catch," he replied hotly._

Present time

"You bastard! How dare you say something so sexist to me? I'm your girlfriend, not your bitch!" Screaming in rage, she stomped towards her room.

"Well you sure act like one!" he called out to her as she walked. She froze in place just before entering her room. Shaking her head, she headed in and grabbed her guitar. Walking back out to Skulker, she set her guitar to the power chord. Looking right in his eyes, she scarily and calmly said, "We're through."

Before blasting him with a power chord off her couch.

Skulker quickly recovered, aiming a wrist cannon at Ember, now just as pissed off as the flaming girl. "You'll pay for that, witch."

Shooting an ecto-blast, he jump into the hall, not caring that it missed his now ex-girlfriend. Ember easily deflected the blast and set after the hunter. Setting her guitar to the power fist, she struck the strings, pointing the musical weapon at Skulker. He dodged, throwing an explosive at her, causing her to dive back into the room.

Skulker used this time to make his escape, but not before arming something that looked suspiciously like a bomb and throwing it into the room Ember was holed up in.

"Have fun in the after-afterlife!" he cried out before jet packing off into the Zone. Ember, seeing the bomb, freaked out, knowing it'd do some real damage, and possibly kill her again if she remained. She quickly teleported in a whirlwind of flame seconds before it went off.

Reappearing several hundred feet away from her realm, she watched as it collapsed internally after the explosion. Her realm was gone, for good, and there was no getting another anytime soon.

 _At the same time, 20 minutes ago_

Danny Phantom entered the GZ through his parents' Ghost Portal, setting a track for Clockwork's tower.

"Man, I wonder what old Father Time has for me now. Hopefully, nothing bad. I'd hate to make a trip through the Zone for nothing," the halfa said to himself. Flying past realm doors and floating, green rock islands, the halfa slowed down when he heard muffled blasts a few doors down. Thinking it was nothing, Danny passed by, turning around when he heard a door open and Skulker yell.

He watched as the hunter threw a device into the door and flew off. He followed the ghost at high speed, tackling Skulker in midair. "What was that, Skulker?!"

"None of your business, whelp. Just a breakup and a 'bomb voyage' as they say," the hunter chuckled darkly. The halfa powered up an ecto-ray, pointing at the mechanical head of the ghost.

"A breakup? With who? And wait, a bomb?! You better start talking, Skulker, or I'll finish what I started today and destroy your suit," Danny growled.

"With my bitch of an ex, Ember. And why do you care, whelp? Now let go of me, or I'll skin you!" No sooner had he said this then he shot Danny in the stomach with a low ecto-blast, making his quick escape.

Holding his stomach, Danny chose not to pursue Skulker. _Why do I care about Ember? She's just another enemy, right?_

A blast resounded in the background, and he turned to see a door disintegrate and a shockwave shoot from where it had floated. He faced away from the blast, taking the brunt of the wave. Looking up after getting pushed a few feet in his free floating state, he noticed a blue flame a bit away.

 _Thank god she's okay. Wait, what?_ His frantic thoughts played through his mind as he decided to make sure Ember was okay.

"What do you want, Baby-pop? Can't you see my damn realm just got blown to smithereens! Leave me alone," she seethed as Danny approached.

"Just checkin' on you, Ember. I heard about the breakup from that scumbag, and watch the explosion. Luckily, you got out."

"Yeah, ol' rust-bucket couldn't handle me dumping him for him being an ass. So he destroyed my realm. Where am I supposed to stay now, dipstick?" she all but screamed at him.

Danny thought about this. _Well, she could stay with me... or I'll check if she has someone to put her up for awhile._

"Don't you have friends, Ember? What about Kitty and Johnny? Or someone else?" he questioned.

"No, dipstick, I couldn't burden Kitty like that, and they don't have any space anyways. And there is no one else. Being a punk princess doesn't leave much time to build reliable friendships, even if you're an undying ghost," she glumly shot back.

 _Guess it's now or never._

"You could stay... with me," he hesitantly mumbled.

"What?! Stay with you, dipstick? In the human world?! No way, Baby-pop."

"It'd just be until you could get a realm built back up. We could have a temporary truce, and this way I know you aren't running loose causing trouble in the Ghost Zone or human world," Danny pressured.

"There's no way, Phantom. It'd be impossible."

"No it wouldn't. You can stay, Ember. Get back on your feet. Hey, maybe we might even become friends!"

"I don't know, dipstick... How would this work? I can't exactly just stay at your house, with your family. And we'd never be friends if my afterlife depended on it, Phantom."

"Sure we won't, Ember," he stated sarcastically. "So you'll stay? With me? I promise I'll figure out how this will work, ASAP," he continued.

"Sure, Baby-pop, sure. I'll stay."

 **And thus the new story starts! Danny x Ember fic, and ima actually try this time. As you can see, a longer chapter than usually in my stories. And I will try regular updating. I have this all mapped out, I promise!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Ghost Zone, Fenton Portal**

"Okay dipstick, how we gonna do this?" Ember snarkily asked. After flying through the GZ from where Ember's realm used to be, they had arrived at the Portal. Danny had decided to work out the final details there before he allowed Ember to cross through.

"Well since you're staying with me, I guess I better set down some ground rules, and we'll have to figure out a schedule so you aren't seen, or worse." _I did not think this through..._

"Ground rules and a schedule?! I don't follow orders, Baby-pop. I would of thought you knew this by now," she added cheekily. "Let's go, dipstick."

With that she attempted to float through the Ghost Portal. Danny stood there knowingly shaking his head.

Ember went through the swirling green portal, appearing through on the other side, in FentonWorks. As soon as she entered the lab, an alarm went off and multiple ecto-weapons shot out of the walls, aiming at the ghost in the room. _Oh shit. Maybe I should have listened to the dipstick._

She felt a hand grab her by the back of her tank-top and pull her back through the Portal before the weapons would have blasted the spot where she had stood. She flew backwards when she was released by Danny's grasp in the Zone. Righting herself, she glared at the halfa, who had a smug look on his face.

"You didn't tell me I'd be blasted as soon as I stepped through the Portal!" she screamed at him.

"Next time, listen when I say we have to plan. The house is guarded from ghosts, and its secure now. For the most part. My dad still leaves the portal open a lot," he explained.

"So how am I gonna get through without being made into a puddle of ectoplasm, genius?"

"By me disabling the security. And then I'll add your ecto-signature to the system, so you'd don't get fried. But I'll be putting the Ghost Shield up around the house until I can trust you in the outside world, got that?" He waited for her agreement, while she stood there flabbergasted, her confusion slowly rising to anger.

"You expect me to stay in your house, basically as a prisoner?! Phantom, you better rethink what you just said," she threatened, her flaming hair rising.

"Well, what did you expect? You're...Ember. You try to take over the world, and you make me have to fight you. The Shield will only be up until I believe I can let you out without you trying to take over my town. Depending on how you act at my house, that may not be long. But if you break that trust, I won't hesitate to trap you in a thermos until your realm can be rebuilt."

Ember gave a sullen nod, understanding. She didn't want to be trapped in a thermos. Then how would the world hear her music?

"Okay, Baby-pop. Let's get this over with so I can settle down. I can already tell this is gonna be a long stay."

"Before I go in, I need something from you to put in for your ecto-signature. Does your hair, I don't know, power down? Is it even hair?" he asked.

"Yes, its hair! And yes, it powers down. Just give me a minute, I gotta relax." She closed her eyes and began to breathe. Her hair sluggishly lost its flame-like appearance, coming down to a short high ponytail, still a flame-blue.

"Okay, Ember, I think you're good. I just need a strand, so I'll be quick."

"Go ahead, Phantom. Hurry up though, before you say something stupid and piss me off again."

Danny reached up to her ponytail. He was amazed at how soft her hair was, considering it was normally an angry fireball. _Wait, why am I feeling her hair?_ He returned to the task at hand. Grabbing a strand of her blue hair, he gave a quick tug, pulling the hair out. "Okay, I'll be back in a minute. I'll go shut down the security and you can come through. Then I'll put you in the system."

He made his way through the Portal and to the security panel. _Of course Dad would make the on/off switch a big red button._ Pressing the button, he listened as the system whirred and shut down. Flying back to the portal, he stuck his head through and called Ember through. He then returned to the panel and repeated the process he did for himself all that time ago. He inserted the hair into a tube, and the system read its ecto-signature. He bypassed the system, making sure it would ignore whenever Ember's signature showed up in the house.

"Okay Ember, you're safe, the house won't fry you. But go invisible until we get to my room," he instructed.

"You forget I'm a ghost." She proceeded to go invisible and intangible and flew through the ceiling of the lab and towards Danny's room.

"Oh...yeah..." He flew through the ceiling after her, appearing in his bedroom, where Ember was already flopped down on his bed, asleep.

 _It must of have been a stressful day for her._

Turning back into Fenton, he headed downstairs towards the kitchen, hoping dinner was done. Seeing his mother just pulling out a casserole from the oven, he called out to her, "Hey, Mom. That smells delicious."

"Thank you, Danny! I worked very hard on it. And I made sure there's nothing ghostly about this tuna casserole. Go get your father, he's in the backyard."

In the yard Jack was testing out a new ecto-pistol on some cardboard cutouts of the classic sheet ghost. Danny walked up and tapped him on the shoulder, and was consequently taken at gunpoint. "Oh, its just you Danny-boy. Sorry about that, you just caught me in shooting mode. What do you need son?"

Shaking off the shock of being held at gunpoint, Danny remembered what his mom asked him to do. "Dinner's done. Mom sent me out to get you."

"Oh, tuna casserole here I come!" Jack tore off into the house, determined to get some of his wife's cooking. Danny headed in after him, settling down in the kitchen. He grabbed a wedge of the casserole and a few spoonfuls of the green beans his mother had set out and sat at the table to enjoy his meal. After he finished, he had a thought to grab Ember a plate, not knowing if ghosts necessarily ate. He told his mom he was just still hungry, but was going to eat in his room.

Heading upstairs, Danny walked into his room to find the punk princess still napping. Setting the food on his bedside table, he shook her awake. "Hey, I brought you some food. Don't know if you eat or not, but its good."

"Yeah, ghosts eat, for the most part. Remember the Christmas party, we had all kinds of food there. Thanks for the food, Baby-pop." Grabbing the plate, Ember dug in. "You weren't kidding, this is good!"

Danny smiled, seeing Ember was at least semi-happy after her breakup and her realm being destroyed.

He'd do _anything_ to make sure she's happy. The alternative was not something he'd want to think about.

"Are you ready to hear the ground rules, Ember? We have to figure it out sometime, hopefully sooner than later." She gave a nod, indicating he could proceed.

"Okay then, here goes. Umm... for now, try not to leave my room and-" "How will I shower? Or get food when you're at school or whatever? And how are you gonna keep your family out of your room while I'm here?"

He thought about that. He didn't know that ghosts were this similar to humans, in things such as routine. He planned as he went.

"Showering will have to be early morning, before I have to before going to school. Sorry if its an inconvenience to wake up so early, but it'll have to do, unless you want to late at night before going to sleep. Food... go invisible and grab some when no one is in the kitchen. I guess that means you don't have to stay in here constantly, but don't cause them problems! As for keeping them out, I have that covered." Having said that quickly and with little breath, he let her absorb that information.

"Okay... I think I got it. I can deal with those rules. Thanks, Baby-pop. Now, last thing I promise. What about sleeping arrangements?"

 _I knew I forgot something! Umm, what are we gonna do about sleep?_

Ember could see Danny thinking, probably stumped on how they were going to sleep without it being awkward. It wasn't like he had a big bed, and she doubted his floor was comfortable. She definitely wasn't sleeping on it, but she couldn't make him sleep on the floor in his own home.

"I guess I'll sleep on the floor. I wouldn't let a girl sleep anywhere other than the bed." he compromised.

"No, dipstick. I won't make you sleep on the floor. We'll... share." She sighed, this was going to be awkward no matter what.

"Sh-share? A bed? With you?! I mean, not that there's anything w-wrong with you! Just...umm... its uhh... not normal," he stammered out.

"Dipstick, shut up and come lay down. It'll be fine. But no cuddling, or I'll fry you!" _Of course she would._ Danny first went to his closet to change into his sleep clothes, when he thought of Ember. It couldn't be comfortable sleeping in leather.

He called out. "Hey, um, Ember. You don't have any sleep clothes, do you?" She flashed back to her realm being destroyed. No she didn't have any sleep clothes. She didn't have anything.

"No, Danny, I don't," she murmured back, just loud enough for him to hear. He noticed she called him by his name, a rare utterance from her. He could also hear the sadness in her voice. He brought out a big shirt and shorts of his, hoping she could bear with him.

"Here. Go change, and come back. You need some rest, Ember." Handing her the clothes, he showed her the closet where she could change. What came out is what shocked him. Ember returned in only the shirt, and he assumed her underwear. He had to focus not to stare at her long white-blue legs as she walked back to the bed.

"Scoot over, dipstick. And I warned you, no cuddling."

He was frozen, still thinking about her legs. He shook his head and scooted over in the bed, leaving her a decent amount of room. They faced away from each other, and luckily had separate pillows, but they had to share Danny's blanket.

"Good night, Ember."

"Good night, Baby-pop. And thanks."

 **So I felt loved today by whoevers read this. So I decided to post another chapter. Review, people! I like the favorites and follows, but I cant improve if I dont know what you guys think.**

 **Ironically,**

 **Sam**


	3. Chapter 3

**Human Realm, Danny's room**

A cool and long leg against his legs. A hip under his forearm. Cotton fabric bunched in his hand. Cool heat muffled by the fabric against his chest. And soft hair in his face.

Her leg trapped between two warm legs. An arm on her hip. The shirt tightened around her torso. An unnatural cold against her back, along with something poking her lower back. Breath on her neck.

They remained there, trying to figure out the situation, both semi-awake and in a stand-still. Despite her warning, he had still ended up embracing her during the night, and she was confused on if she now totally had a problem with it. He worried if he moved if she would react and fry him like she promised. Not that he wanted to.

"Dipstick, can you let go of my shirt? I have to go shower." Ember murmured quietly, shifting to slide off the bed. Danny quickly let go of her, worried at her calm reaction. Ember slid to the edge and sat up. "We'll forget this for now, dipstick."

She got up to leave, determined to find the bathroom without Danny's help. She did, right across the hall. She didn't attempt invisibility, as no one was awake yet, she could sense it. Entering the bathroom, Ember quickly located a towel, placing it on the rack for easy reach. She turned the shower to the right temperature and shed her clothes, stepping into the water.

Danny sat up in bed, still working this situation out in his head. He woke up with Ember in his arms, and he felt giddy. He probably shouldn't enjoy this so much, but he did. He got up to grab an outfit from his closet for school as he waited for Ember to finish in the bathroom.

Ember stepped out of the shower after turning it off and grabbed the towel off the rack. Drying herself, even though she could just intangibly shed the water on her body, she conjured her normal outfit of an off the shoulder tank top and leather pants, and her boots. She forwent the glove, but donned her skulled belt.

Leaving the bathroom she met Danny as he left his bedroom with his clothes. She slipped back into the room after he went by and grabbed her guitar, which she had managed to bring with her. She took a place on Danny's bed and began to strum the strings in a slow beat, waiting for him to return.

"I didn't mean to, Ember." She looked up to see him in the doorway. He had actually put on a new outfit, consisting of dark blue jeans, a black casual button-up, and his sneakers.

"I know, Baby-pop. Its okay, not like you tried to. I would fry you then." She remembered that his natural coldness had actually required her to use the blanket, when her fire core normally kept her warm. She just hadn't told him this last night when they'd gone to bed.

"Okay then. I have to head to school soon. Do you want me to bring you up something to eat, or will you just get it later?" he asked. He wasn't in a rush.

"Yeah, just bring me up some grub. I'll eat in here. So how do you plan to keep me hidden, Phantom?" That was still her main concern in staying at Fenton's place.

"I'm going to lock the door, and tell them its dirty. That should keep them out for a bit." he explained.

"That's your big plan? Just tell them its dirty, and lock it? I'm sorry dipstick, but I doubt that'll work. Not only do both your parents probably have a bedroom key, but your mom seems like the type of mom who would clean your room knowing its dirty." she shot back.

"Ah ah. You don't know my family, or how dirty this room has gotten. They wouldn't dare enter it if I claim its a biohazard. Or I'd hope so... my privacy means something, I guess." he ventured out on a limb. Privacy wasn't something big in the Fenton family, but he'd held greater secrets *cough ghost powers cough*.

"Whatever. If you think that'll work, I won't stop you. You better hope so, Phantom."

With that Danny left to go get food, bringing a plate to Ember. He ate his microwave sausage sandwich and left for school. Ember returned to her guitar strumming, and ended up playing her hit song, "Remember".

 **Casper High School**

Danny stopped flying behind a tree, switching back to his human state. Approaching the school for another day of learning (torture), Danny caught his friends at the door. "Hey Sam, hey Tucker." he called out.

"What up, Danny." Tucker replied. The techno-geek had his PDA in hand, as always, playing some old fashioned game.

"Hey Danny. Where have you been lately? We didn't see you at all yesterday, and you didn't walk with us." Sam asked with concern.

"I just went on a trip in the Ghost Zone, visiting Clockwork," hr lied through his teeth. Technically he did go on a trip in the GZ, and he did plan to visit Clockwork, but that wasn't the reason for him being missing all day, or him not walking with his friends. "I woke up late today, so I flew."

"Ah, okay. Well let's get to class. Can't have Lancer giving us even more detention." Sam said. With that they headed to the before-mentioned teacher's classroom, just getting to their seats as the final bell rang. The bald educator strolled into the room and stood in front of his desk to address his class. "Okay class, today we will be studying the first part of the Divine Comedy, 'Dante's Inferno'."

A collective groan was heard throughout the class.

 **-Break-**

The trio walked out of the front doors of the school, heading down the block towards their homes. "Hey Danny, wanna hang out at my house?" asked Tucker.

"Yeah, we'll play some Doom, right?" Danny replied.

"Of course bro. What else would we play?" the techno-geek joked.

"Well you two can go rot your brains with the corporate message in the form of meaningless games. See you tomorrow." called out Sam before she turned a corner and made her way home.

The boys headed to Tucker's house, not a thought of the blue-flamed ghost in Danny's room. Several hours and multiple hordes of enemies conquered later Danny called it a night and decided to head home for some well-needed sleep.

Arriving at home, he slipped through the front door and towards the kitchen. He grabbed a plate of meatloaf and warmed it up in the microwave. Grabbing his food, he headed upstairs to his room.

He pushed open the door and walked into his room, closing the door after him. Sensing something coming at him, he ducked as a pencil flew over his head and embedded in his door.

"So you're finally back, dipstick?! I've been sitting here all day, doing nothing but waiting on your sorry ass!" Ember screeched at Danny. Picking up another pencil she prepared to launch it at him, but an ecto-beam disintergarted it. Danny glared at Ember, one hand still steaming with ecto-energy.

"I'm sorry I was gone so long, but I have a life too, Ember. I'll try to be around more, okay? Not used to you being around yet." Danny explained.

"Whatever, Baby-pop. Better be." she subtly threatened. Seeing his plate, her stomach grumbled. Danny, hearing the groan, asked, "Have you eaten yet?" She shooke her head. "Well, here. I'll go get more." He handles her the plate and left the room to get more.

He returned from the kitchen to his room after retrieving more meatloaf. Opening his door, he was greeted to Ember seated on the bed, tentatively eating the food. She turned to him. "I'm sorry for freaking out, dipstick."

"Its fine, Ember. Just eat, and then time for bed. Remember, I have school." he replied.

"Whatever, sure." she laziky threw back. Returning to their meals, they ignored the other until it was they were both done eating and ready for sleep.

Danny made a move for the closet first, quickly shedding his day clothes and throwing them in his hamper. He picked a pair of sweats to sleep in, but decided the rising May heat deemed it acceptable to forego a shirt. He left the closet and headed towards his bed. Ember sat there, internally mesmerized at Danny's physique. _Wait, what? Oggling the dipstick? Oh, I'll get him back for that._

She passed Danny on his way back, entering the closet. She dissolved her outfit, a blessing and a curse of ghost. Sure, they can wear other clothes, but it always came back to their standard outfit, which can be summoned and sent away for brief amounts of time.

Returning to her mission, she looked through the drawers in Danny's closet, coming upon a older, and smaller, shirt of his. She slipped it on and felt the snugness of it on her torso; luckily it was long though, covering her underwear. She slid out of the closet, walking towards the bed, and seeing Danny's eyes bulge for an instant. She gave a small, inaudible giggle.

Danny stared at her legs again, obviously, but the shirt drew attention to her chest as well, an image he couldn't help staring at as a late teenage boy. He decides this was now his favorite shirt. Ember climbed onto the bed, stealing the blanket from Danny. She faced away from him as he lay down, facing away as well. They said their good nights, both slipping into a comfortable sleep.

Some time during the night they both shifted. Danny rolled over, an arm curling around the small frame of Ember. Ember scooted back subconsciously, and snuggled into Danny's cold body. Ember's hair briefly flared in the night at the unknown affection. This is where she felt safe, she dreamily decided.

 **A/N: Made sure I did a regular update. Hope you like it. R &R if you will, please.**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: I am so sorry. I had a college prep summer program just shortly after I published the last chapter. Then I couldn't pick this back up for the life of me cuz I didn't know what I had planned for the direction it was taking. Then school started, with my AP and college prep classes. But I'm back. And I know my excuses suck.**

 **Human Realm, Danny's Room**

Ectoplasmic green eyes fluttered open at the break of dawn. As her body woke up, her senses returned to her. She felt the arm haphazardly thrown over her waist, and how she was completely pressed to another warm body. She shut her eyes again, and tried to return to a peaceful slumber. _I could get used to this. Wait, what?!_

Ember's eyes flew open as she realized her thoughts. She felt safe, peaceful, even wanted, but she was hesitant. She just got out of a bad relationship, and she didn't understand what was going on here. Sure, the dipstick cuddles up to her at night. That doesn't mean he means to or even likes her... does it? She shook her head, trying to clear her wandering thoughts.

 _Now, to get out of here without waking Baby-pop up._

Ember grabbed Danny's wrist to pull his arm off her slowly. Blue eyes flashed open, rapidly shining green for a moment. His arm tightened on her waist and he flipped from his side to his back to use his other arm to secure hers. Ember was basically captive in a strong bear hug, although it appeared to be a defense mechanism. She felt how strong he was and could have appreciated it if his strength wasn't being used to squeeze the afterlife out of her,

"Woah, dipstick, calm down! Its just me!" she blurted out.

"Oh. Sorry, Ember. Surprised me there." His arms loosened, although he still held her. He didn't make a move to stand up and get dressed because it was still early, but he'd have to for school. At least it was Friday.

"Its fine, Baby-pop, just hope you don't do it again. I don't wanna die again, especially from a bear hug. Now, could you let go so I can go shower?" she asked.

"Oh yeah, sure." With that he let go of the punk princess and she slid off first him, then the bed. She headed towards the bathroom, intangibly phasing through both Danny's bedroom door and the bathroom door. He heard the shower start up a moment after.

Danny got up a moment later to change into a clean set of clothes and headed down to the kitchen. He found his mother making their family breakfast, composed of bacon, scrambled eggs, and pancakes. He moved to the counter to make a cup of coffee.

"Hey, Mom. What's on the agenda today?" Danny inquired.

"Oh, the usual. Your father and I are working on a new sensor that will detect ectoplasmic concentrations in the town. We thought it could be used to control those random ghost attacks. So far we're having no luck. We're going to do a localized test later this week though. It should test the area around the house."

 _In other words, I'm in trouble if it works... as well as Ember!_

"Well that's nice, Mom. Gotta go, got stuff to do." With that, he grabbed a big plate of food for himself and the rocker to share.

Danny arrived at school just in time for the bell. Intangibly flying through the wall, he landed in a stall in the boys' bathroom. Dual bands of light flashed around him as he returned to his human form and walked out of the stall and restroom. He hurried to Lancer's class.

Bursting through the door as the bell rang, he let out a whoosh of air. _Thank God, I'm not late._ He moved to his seat and pulled out last night's assignment, fortunately having found time to do it. As the class began to grade it, his mind wandered.

'How am I gonna prevent my parents from finding me out, or even Ember? Its not as simple as just not being there during the initial scan. Once they find that it works, they'll improve it, and eventually it'll constantly be on. I wouldn't be able to hide.'

His mind raced with possibilities on how to sabotage the machine, or the results. Destroying it would be easy, but they'd just build another. He had to make it seem as if it didn't work correctly, so they'd give up on it.

In the cafeteria, Danny stood in the lunch line, waiting on his 'Meat Surprise'. He hadn't seen Sam or Tucker all day. Unfortunately, one of his other 'peers' decided to make an appearance.

"Hey, Fentoad!"

Dash, the star quarterback, stood with his group of lackeys, along with the female A-Listers. Danny sighed in exasperation.

"What do you want, Dash?" he dully questioned, already knowing the answer.

"I wanna give you a tour of Casper's finest lockers. So just come here, less trouble for you, and me." the football player snarkily replied.

"Get lost, lughead." a young woman called out. That young woman was the resident Goth, and Danny's best friend, Sam.

"Gonna let your girlfriend defend you, Fentoenail?"

"She's not my girlfriend." "I'm not his girlfriend." the friends yelled out, both their faces flushing.

"Sure, whatever, love-birds. Now get over here, Fenton, so I can throw you in a locker, before I throw both you and her in there. But I bet you geeks would enjoy that, wouldn't you?" His A-Listers laughed at that, and the friends' faces flamed even more. Dash rushed Danny to grab him, only to be tripped by Sam's black combat boot and to slam face first into the wall.

Shaking his head clear, the jock whipped around to find the geeks had disappeared.

"Thanks for that, Sam. I didn't feel like dealing with that loser today."

"Its all part of the job as a friend, Danny. Gotta make sure you're safe and keep out of trouble."

Hearing that, Danny had an idea. Not only was he going to protect his secret, he was going to protect Ember.

 **A/N: omg, thank you readers who pointed out the Saturday thing. I wrote half of this back in June, and didn't read over it very well before finishing it. Its fixed now though.**


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